Missouri City man competes in National Adult Spelling Bee for third year

CORY STOTTLEMYER

Published 3:12 am, Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Missouri City resident Ron Lewis has been retired for several years, and much like other retired individuals, he has taken up several hobbies to pass his time. An avid reader and golfer, Lewis has taken his fascination for the written word and text and parlayed it into a unique hobby: competing in spelling bees.

For the third year in a row, Lewis traveled to Cheyenne, Wyo., to compete in the AARP National Spelling Bee. Although he did not win this year, Lewis has earned several top prizes as he travels across Texas and even Fort Bend to compete in several adult spelling bees.

First noticing an advertisement for the AARP National Spelling Been several years ago, Lewis did not compete until 2010. Since then, he practices regularly for several bees each year.

“I compete in the AARP Spelling Bee, which is held in Cheyenne. The city of Austin also has an adult spelling bee, and I think that’s a fundraiser for the library. I’ve participated in that one for the past two years. I do the Fort Bend Literacy Council one as well,” Lewis said. “There are not that many that are around locally, but those are the three I compete in.”

The AARP Adult Spelling Bee is a two-day event that kicks off with a free workshop, which allows participants to ask several brain health specialists questions. The official competition begins with a 100-word written spelling test, which narrows the field down to 15 competitors. The final 15 then square off in the oral spelling finals that afternoon, where they can only miss two words before being eliminated from the competition.

Although Lewis never competed in the Scripps National Spelling Bee when he was younger, he has wasted no time catching up and earning several top spots. Lewis’ team has won the Fort Bend Literacy Council’s adult spelling bee in the past, and he is determined to win the AARP Bee in the future.

“I’ve always been a good speller. Back when I was a kid in grade school, we’d have spelling bees. I was usually the last kid standing,” Lewis said. “In high school, I think spelling was an event in the interscholastic league competitions, and I always participated in that. It’s something I’ve always been interested in.”

Lewis is an avid reader, and frequently looks through the Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary for words that might be chosen for the competition. He currently has a list of 8,000 words he studies in addition to his word of the day.

“I’m an ex-engineer, and I enjoy the patterns and knowing the correct spelling of words. It’s just something that is part of my DNA,” Lewis said. “Whenever I read a newspaper or magazine article, I catch myself looking for typos. I drive my wife nuts when I point out that there are two or three words misspelled on a menu. I’m just one of those people who goes around making sure that all the t’s are crossed and all the i's are dotted.”

The Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 11th edition, that Lewis studies has 165,000 words to study for the competition. While it may seem daunting, Lewis is happy that it is less expansive than the unabridged version that younger competitors have to study for the Scripps competition.

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“The kids have almost half a million words to study. We old people get a little bit of a break,” Lewis said. “I read quite a bit. I’m 64, and I’ve always had an interest in reading and learning. I’ve taught myself how to study words and put them in my database. Like I said, it’s part of my DNA.”